Vantage wins contract to manage €20m hotel

Two well-known figures from the hotel industry have won a contract to manage Oysterhomes' €20 million 68-bed premises in Athlone.

Paul O'Meara and Paul Taaffe, now operating as Vantage Hotel Management, will run the Athlone Springs Hotel, which opens for business in the new year.

The hotel will have 68 bedrooms and conference and banqueting facilities. It is part of a mixed development by Eamon Conneely's Oysterhomes at the western end of the midlands town. It will cost €20 million.

Mr O'Meara and Mr Taaffe recently joined forces to establish Vantage, which will provide management and consultancy services to hotel developers and owners.

The idea is imported from the US, where Mr Taaffe spent a long part of his career. There developers build hotels and engage management companies to run them. Vantage will either manage hotels on behalf of their clients, or advise them on bringing in international brands.

Mr O'Meara is well known in the hotel business. He is a former chairman of the Galway branch of the Irish Hotels Federation (IHF) and was a member of that body's national council. He has also worked for Ashford Castle, Jury's Doyle and the Trusthouse Forte group in Britain.

Mr Taaffe was financial director of the Fitzpatrick Group, which at the time had two hotels in the US and three in Ireland. It is one of the country's better-known hotel brands. Mr Taaffe's expertise is financing and profitability, while Mr O'Meara is focused on operations. Vantage is based in Galway and Dublin.